Book 3 in the Needed Killing Series. Newly licensed PI James F. Crawford had never considered taking his cat to the local folk festival. But when a friend wants The Black for a photo shoot, Crawford obliges. That a snake will be part of the shoot is just the first surprise in store for Crawford. Snakes, arson, blackmail . . . this festival will be unlike any other in the history of Jemison County.

THE MURDER: The first victim is the college librarian who's bludgeoned to death by a massive avalanche of books. Accident? Investigator Whit Pynchon has a disturbing and different idea.
THE MOTIVATION: Whit knows the murderer was really after is ex-wife. And he watches helplessly as both his daughter and his lover, newspaper editor Anna Tyree, are abducted by a madman.